Proudly the Opposite of What Passes for Progressive

Monthly Archives: February 2013

Seeing as how Groundhog Day has just passed us and the Bill Murray movie of the same name was about a day that kept repeating itself ad infinitum, how about the recent re-proposing of extending the vote in Toronto municipal elections to non-citizens as part of the “Toronto Newcomer Strategy”. Re-proposing, because this was an issue that David Miller’s regime brought up when he was mayor of Toronto; the left seems perpetually obsessed with ethnic retail politics, pandering to this group or that group all with the soft racism of diminished expectations… these ethnic communities are in their mind weak and in need of government support, hence they will vote for those politicians and parties that are there for them twenty four hours a day, even though socially and culturally these ethnic communities have little cause in common with the NDP or Liberals. And it’s the NDP and the Liberals who want to treat our country as some kind of glorified hotel and treat national citizenship like some quaint notion that belongs in an era of black-and-white TVs and Edsels. So let’s grant people who either can’t be arsed to get citizenship, aren’t able to get citizenship or don’t want citizenship the right to vote in our country – it’s ridiculous and degrades what it means to be Canadian.

“Currently there is taxation without representation in this city,” says Toronto Councilor Josh Matlow. He goes on to argue that non-citizens are contributing to the economic livelihood of the city, and thus are disenfranchised and should be allowed to participate in the political process that is affecting them. OK… if that is the basis of their argument, one of means testing, i.e. you pay taxes or own property thus you have a stake in our politics, then let’s have that discussion, because by extension then couldn’t you argue that there are plenty of Canadian “citizens”, some of whom like to camp out in tents in public parks for Occupy No More protests, who don’t contribute a dime of taxes, don’t contribute a dime of wealth to the economy and have no hope of ever owning property – maybe the flip side of Matlow’s discussion is warranted… let’s take the vote out of these people’s hands.